[Numpy-discussion] Wheel files for PPC64

[Leonardo Bianconi]

Hi all!

I realized that there is no "whl" files for PPC64 (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/numpy/1.12.0b1), which makes numpy be compiled when installing it with pip. It is causing a low performance on this architecture when the libopenblas is not previously installed, while for x86_64 it is installed as a lib, which is in the "whl" file.

What must to be done to add a build of numpy for PPC64, and upload the "whl" files to pypi link?

[Matthew Brett]

Hi,

On Wed, Nov 23, 2016 at 6:47 AM, Leonardo Bianconi

Post by Leonardo Bianconi
Hi all!
I realized that there is no “whl” files for PPC64
(https://pypi.python.org/pypi/numpy/1.12.0b1), which makes numpy be compiled
when installing it with pip. It is causing a low performance on this
architecture when the libopenblas is not previously installed, while for
x86_64 it is installed as a lib, which is in the “whl” file.
What must to be done to add a build of numpy for PPC64, and upload the “whl”
files to pypi link?

The problem for wheel files is agreeing to some standard for binary
compatibility that guarantees the wheel will work on more than a
single Unix distribution / version.

The work to do that for Intel Linux is over at
https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0513 . As you can see, that PEP
defines a standard set of libraries and library symbol versions to
build against, such that the resulting wheel will be compatible with a
large number of Intel Linux distributions. There's also a standard
docker container to build with, containing the correct libraries /
symbols.

Otherwise, you'll have to build the wheels for your platform only, and
put them up somewhere in a web directory, for others with the same
platform. It doesn't make sense to put them on pypi, because, unless
you have done the standardization work, they will likely fail for most
people.

Best,

Matthew